


The Consequences of a Lie

by EnchantHollow



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Endgame Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Lila Rossi mentions, No akumas today thank you, mild salt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:55:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24479065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnchantHollow/pseuds/EnchantHollow
Summary: Marinette is left bereft when she is expelled due to Lila's lies. Everyone seems to believe her, even Marinette's own parents, and Adrien barely bothered to speak up. Unable to stand it any longer, she runs. Somehow, she ends up at the Liberty, and Luka is there to offer her a shoulder to cry on.
Relationships: Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 15
Kudos: 231





	The Consequences of a Lie

**Author's Note:**

> In this universe, Marinette runs away from her parents after being expelled in "Ladybug" because they clearly believe that she's guilty. Instead of trying to akumatize all of Marinette's friends, Hawkmoth waits to see what happens, sensing a lot of power in Marinette and wanted to take advantage of it. He is also worried about Nathalie and reluctant to use her in his scheme, what with her failing health. Not wanting to go home after her parents believed the lies about her in the locker room, Marinette somehow finds herself at the Liberty. As soon as she sees Luka, she breaks down. Luka is, understandably, confused.
> 
> *I've been informed that I should label this as salt toward Adrien. I don't fully agree, and I did mention in the summary that in Marinette's eyes, he barely tried to stand up for her (before this point in the episode, and yes, I fully acknowledge that he did so afterwards, although Marinette doesn't know that he did so). However, in deference to that, Luka thinks some rather unkind things about Adrien in about 3 lines of this story regarding the fact that he knew Lila was lying and didn't fight harder to stop everything from spiraling out of control. So, if you consider that to be salt, salt warning given.

Marinette barely sees street after street fly by as the tears run down her cheeks. She doesn't know where she's going, just that she doesn't want to go home or back to that school full of people who don't believe in her. Tikki had been shouting something at her before, but she couldn't hear it over the roaring in her ears, and her kwami has long retreated to her purse. Finally, Marinette looks up to see a familiar ship in the distance. Immediately, she locks onto the Liberty as a target, and soon she's stumbling up the gangplank.

Luka, who had been sitting in the afternoon sun and strumming his guitar, quickly sets his instrument aside and rises.

"Marinette?"

As he reaches her, she collapses into his arms and sobs hysterically.

"Whoa, Marinette, are you okay?"

He gets a lot of mumbles and tearful cries muffled by his chest in return, and he quickly wraps an arm around her and leads her down to his bunk. He tells her to say whatever and however much or little she wants. It takes time, but he eventually gathers that some girl named Lila (he feels like that name is familiar somehow; he'll have to ask Jules later) has done some pretty awful things to Marinette, and now she's been disowned by her friends and kicked out of school. There's something about being pushed down the stairs, but since he doesn't see any bruises on Marinette, he figures he must have misheard that part.

Just as Marinette is finally beginning to calm down and be wholly understandable, Juleka arrives home from school and comes strolling into the room. Marinette takes one look, turns white as a sheet, and runs.

Juleka looks after the fleeing, tearful girl for a searching moment and then brings her unhidden eye back to her brother, looking somewhat ashamed.

"…she didn't… she didn't do it, huh?" Juleka mutters. Luka simply gives her a look and then takes off after Marinette. He finds her sitting on top of the greenhouse, and though he's not entirely sure how the short girl made it up there, he pulls himself up beside her.

"I'm sorry, Luka, I should go. Juleka probably doesn't want to see me, and this is your home, and my parents are probably worried, and-" her words are cut off as she finds her face buried in Luka's chest.

"Marinette, you didn't do anything wrong, and Juleka knows that."

"But Lila-"

"-is a liar, clearly, and we're going to prove it. I told you once before: you're as pure as a musical note and sincere as a melody. No one as pure as you would do this kind of thing, and anyone who knows you knows that. Or they should. We're going to make it right. I don't know how this Lila girl could possibly treat you this way, but she won't get away with it. Not this time."

He's gathered from some of the jumbled half-stories earlier that this wasn't the first time this Lila has tried to upset Marinette, and that thought is nearly too much for him.

Luka feels rage bubbling inside him, and he knows Marinette is drowning in sorrow, so he isn't all that surprised to see a somewhat familiar purple butterfly fluttering toward them. Marinette looks up just in time to spot it, and she freezes. Luka, knowing her delicate situation (can't have Ladybug getting akumatized, after all), pulls away from her still-shaking form and catapults himself at the akuma. Before Marinette can stop him, he grabs the fluttering insect in his fist.

Distantly, he hears Marinette scream his name, and then his ears fill with the silken, treacherous voice of Hawkmoth. His vision blanks out as the villain tries to regain control; this hadn't been his plan, after all. He had been after the girl. But he can make this work. Luka patiently lets him speak his piece, and then he simply says "no."

Hawkmoth stutters for a moment, but before he can even attempt to recover, Luka repeats himself, even more firmly, and cuts the connection.

His vision clears and his hearing returns, and he realizes Marinette is panicking behind him. The akuma is still in his fist, and he quickly uses his other hand to form a gentler cage. After all, the butterfly didn't ask to be used for evil like this.

"-you can't, Luka, please, I can't fight- see you like that again, and I-"

"Marinette. Can your kwami cleanse this, or do you need to transform? It's… unsettling to hold."

"I-you… huh?" She looks him up and down, noting the lack of a glowing purple butterfly mask or ominous purple-black goo turning him evil, and she's so confused she doesn't grasp what he said. Thankfully, Tikki is quicker on the draw, and she swoops into his hands to deal with the akuma.

"Tikki! What are you doing? You can't, he, secret… wait." She comes to a halt and looks him in the eyes for the first time since she collapsed into his grip when she arrived. "You said…" Thankfully, at that moment, Tikki somehow cleanses the akuma, and Luka puts his newly freed hands onto Marinette's trembling shoulders.

"Now isn't the time, Marinette. We can talk about that later, I promise. Right now, we need to focus on getting you absolved and making sure Lila doesn't do something like this to you again. Can you start from the beginning again, so that I can fully understand what's going on?"

She panics for a moment more; he can see it in her eyes. But then her posture changes, and he recognizes that Ladybug has come to play. She's scared and confused, but Ladybug can prioritize and push things aside, and that's exactly what Marinette does. She tells the story of Lila from the girl's first day at François Dupont, and she doesn't stop until she catches up with the present.

Luka is trying not to combust thinking of all the ways in which Marinette has been wronged. He almost wishes he had kept the akuma instead of letting the pink kwami (he'll ask after names later: mental note, and since when is his mind this chaotic? Okay, focus) take care of it. Beyond Lila's awful behavior, and that's a big beyond, there is the behavior of Marinette's friends. Because how can they have abandoned her like this? How can they have heard her song and let it be mis-played so badly by this girl? This-this… okay, deep breaths, no more akumas. And Adrien knew and did nothing? What kind of friendship is that? Letting Marinette be abused so that Lila doesn't get her feelings hurt? He'll be having some words with the boy later, and they won't be "kwamis bless." This is the boy that Marinette is in love with, and he has betrayed her.

Luka forces himself to refocus yet again. There are many wrongs that need to be righted in this mess, but right now, his feelings on the subject are irrelevant, and it's time to help Marinette. No revenge, not this time. Justice, no akuma needed.

**Author's Note:**

> I might add onto this, but I don't know. Feel free to review and let me know if you think I should or not. Also, feel free to check out my tumblr, moonlightandlilacs (The Written Word is the name of my blog). I have a fair bit of Lukanette stuff on there, including this.


End file.
